Halloween 2012

Happy Halloween! Katie is a princess, of course, and Jacob is her pet dragon. She's not quite convinced of this, thinking he may be a bad dragon. Katie quickly remembered how to trick or treat while it took Jacob a moment to catch on. Our first stop was the care home where the residents sit in a circle in the common room so they can all see the kids and hand out candy. Jacob was quick to grab extra chocolate bars and even took candy out of a lady's hand as she was unwrapping it for herself! Little monkey! There were lots of kids out this year, likely because of the nice weather so there were lots of costumes to enjoy.

Princess Katie and her pet dragon

It's a little chilly

How she dressed for her school party

New Patio

We managed to get some time with a local landscaper and had our untidy back yard finessed into a new patio. Love. It. Now to get some furniture...

Jacob was beside himself that there was a 'tractor' in his OWN BACK YARD!

Ready for the paving stones

Of course, it snowed a bit...

...but all got done in the end.

A Week of Woelks

My mom and dad came to visit. Have to get that in before the snow! Mom spent some time raking leaves in the back yard so the kids could jump in the pile. They weren't totally cooperative but we did manage to get some action!

Mid jump!

He just loved running through them.

Showing grandma how well she rides her bike.

Yippeee!

 

Have to get grandpa too!

Mom and dad left to visit everyone in Saskatoon. We planned to head there on the weekend and join the great celebration for my grandma's 93rd birthday. Way to go grandma!! Lots of family were able to come and it was a lot of fun to catch up again. Lots of big get togethers this year and lots of fun seeing everyone. Pat even made a surprise visit (he had just gotten into Saskatoon for work) that had grandma in tears. Tears of happiness! Nice work Pat!

Krista made a sari out of a scarf for Katie

Jacob devoted some time to a cupcake...

...and kissing babies

Sheryl (and Scott) brought the kids purses from Korea

Aubrey showing her big smile

Grandma and Scott

Scott and Mike attempting to teach the kids crokinole

Pat and grandma!

Scott and Jacob. He's going to be such a great dad!

Fall 2012 Vacation

We headed off on our 'usual' fall holiday at the end of September. We decided to keep it a bit more simple this year and only went as far as Edmonton. We still managed to pack in quite a bit!

We spent one weekend in Sasaktoon having some fun. We went to the Forestry Farm with Carol and Lil to see the lion cubs. Well, pretty big cubs by now!

Next, we headed to Edmonton to stay with the Lambert's -  David, Andrea and their kids Peter and Corinne. Dean and David were thrilled to have every evening to spend together. We also got to visit the very busy Carli, Bobby and Jaxon and also the very busy Boorman's - Scott, Trish and Nathan. It was a great trip!! Corinne was so awesome with Katie and let little miss boss her around about Barbies every day. What a patient girl! I just love her!

Our last full day, we headed to Calgary with the Lambert's to go to the zoo and do some shopping (David has a bit of a thing for Lego and wanted to go to the Lego store there). The Zoo had a great new penguin exhibit. Jacob was enthralled with them. I'm sure he could have spent the entire day watching penguins dive into the water over and over. 'Cause that's what they did. They would dive, swim to the end of the pool, climb out and walk back to the diving spot. It was cool! I can't believe how close we were to them!

Corinne, Jacob, Katie and Peter

You know, 'cause Dean and David couldn't resist this

 After Edmonton, we went up to Cold Lake to visit with Dean's other Alberta buddy, Shaun. Unfortunately, Shaun's better half, Wendy, was not well and had to head to a conference the next day so we weren't able to visit with her. Shaun did show us his place on the base and we had a great visit. Now that we are all a bit closer together again, we have some fun. Can you say 'guy's weekend'?

From Shaun's, we drove to visit Dean's parents at their new place in Middle Lake, SK (near Humboldt). They have a really nice little place there and it's only a few minutes to walk to the beach and playground. The weather was gorgeous and the kids really enjoyed playing outside. Glad we were there when the trees still had leaves. Stunning! The following week we went for Thanksgiving and fall was over.

Qu'Appelle Valley Hike

We took a pleasant day in September to go on a family hike in the Qu'Appelle Valley. It was easy for Jacob, hard for Dean (carrying Jacob) and pleasant for Katie and I. The view was great and we are looking forward to trying it again some time soon.

Apples, apples and more apples!

My crab apple tree decided to produce a major bounty again this year. Seriously, enough apples for the entire town. OK, maybe just my block. But really, after I did all my canning, froze a couple bags, delivered some to grandma, gave away 10 grocery bags and threw out 15 grocery bags, there were still enough apples to keep the robins happy and gorged for 2 weeks.

I can only complain so much because the applesauce, juice and jelly really are delicious!

A small portion of the tree

This amount would drop in 24 hours during the peak period.

Juiced, canned, sauced, jellied, buttered and jammed.

Summertime Fun

Peek-a-boo playhouse with new flowers

water slide = good time

Little artists

This is the way we swim in puddles, swim in puddles, swim in puddles...